An exhaustively researched Bloomberg piece out today looks at former governor Jeb Bush's financial dealings since leaving office, of which there are a lot, and asks whether they hurt his presidential prospects by turning him into a "Mini-Mitt."

Not that it's impossible for a zillionaire to get elected, but many considered Romney's piles of money, many of it in offshore accounts, a liability because being filthy rich might have caused some to perceive him as out-of-touch. (Not that it mattered in Rick Scott's case. Money is that dude's jam!)

The piece is a dizzying (for me, anyway) account of an incredibly convoluted web of globe-spanning financial and political relationships. Reporters Joshua Green and Miles Weiss pored over documents filed with the SEC Nov. 27 that show Bush "as chairman and manager of a new offshore private equity fund, BH Global Aviation," which is backed largely by foreign investors and recently underwent a controversial "conversion," meaning it incorporated last November in the U.K. and Wales, possibly to "avoid U.S. taxes and regulations."

More from the piece:

Some of these arrangements proved ­problematic. In 2007, Bush became a paid consultant and director of a Miami building materials startup called ­InnoVida, whose founder went to jail after the company faked documents and misappropriated $40 million. (There’s no evidence Bush acted improperly.) In 2011, ­InnoVida went bankrupt.

The story also notes that after leaving office, Bush served as an advisor to Lehman Brothers. When that company was under fire for its role in the 2008 economic collapse, "he was called upon to use his family connections to try and broker a rescue from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim." That effort, hilariously dubbed "Project Verde," failed.

Another interesting factoid the story notes is Bush's business ties to Armando Olivera, the former Florida Power & Light CEO. In 2009, Bush publicly pushed for a utility rate increase.

 "If Floridians want to enjoy a vibrant, growing economy where high-wage jobs are abundant, we need to allow utility companies to make an adequate return on their investment to expand efficient, clean power generation," he said at the time.

Turns out Bush and Olivera, who was CEO at the time, are now both investors in the aforementioned BH Global ­Aviation, which the piece calls Bush's "largest and most complicated," worth more than $60 million, 98 percent of it kicked in my overseas investors.

Friend and former campaign chair Al Cardenas said Bush's investments are not nearly as big Romney's, the best-known of the latter being "alternative asset management firm" Bain Capital.

“Bain Capital operated in a corporate environment and took over major companies,” Cardenas said in the story. “Jeb’s an ­entrepreneur. There’s a difference between running a company where you invest a hundred million and a place like Bain where Romney invested billions. It’s not what you do for a living, so much as how people perceive you.”

This article appears in Dec 11-17, 2014.